Wishing to stay anonymous, the woman approached the managing director of Toyworld Fyshwick, Pete MacLeod, on Sunday, asking him to split the donation evenly across the almost 200 outstanding laybys at the store. 

“She wanted to do something quite pleasant and thought she’d try to make some people smile this Christmas by contributing to some of their laybys,” he says. 

Trying to bring some joy to the families of Canberra, the woman’s gift was quite a surprise, says Pete, who, until yesterday, was still processing the payments.

After totalling everything, the gift was announced on Facebook this morning where it’s since garnered more than 400 likes.

“Since we did the announcement [customers] have been ringing up and organising to collect their laybys and have been surprised and very grateful for what [the mystery woman] has done,” he says.